Flight 370

[hoosierdoc]

With no indication and no plane... who's to say it's not still intact and landed somewhere. There are lots of things you can do with a plane.

And where would you land such a plane? And how would you find each communication device on every person?

 

[88GT]

That's my best guess - Desmond was too slow putting the numbers into the computer.

Seriously, as a professional pilot all the speculation about this just makes me shake my head.

Bomb or other in-flight breakup = HUGE debris field.


.

Define huge. A couple hundred miles isn't all that big in an ocean. Not to mention that the higher and faster the plane was, the less dense the wreckage will be per square foot. The ocean is only going to make that worse. Having said that, one would still expect to find something.

Of course, one would have to be looking in the right place to begin with.

 

[forgop]

Seriously, as a professional pilot all the speculation about this just makes me shake my head.

Even as a long ago private pilot and aviation grad, I can't stand how uneducated people are when it comes to this kind of stuff. Case and point, SFO crash awhile back where no matter if it was CNN, Fox, you name it, they were reporting pure speculation and provided so much misinformation it was terrible. I have this theory that if you put wings on it or it involves an airport, sheer stupidity ensues.

I think my dream job out of school would have been to been part of an accident investigation team, but there was such little opportunity available when I looked into it around 15 years ago.

 

[avboiler11]

Define huge.

Big enough to easily see from the air.

Bigger than what was seen with Air France 447 that crashed off Brazil a few years back.

Of course, one would have to be looking in the right place to begin with.

EXACTLY.

Which is why its curious that so much multinational effort was put into the search when the Malaysian military evidently had radar data DAYS AGO that the plane had flown west.

 

[gunsisgood]

There are lots of things you can do with a plane.

Yea,
a large plane like that could be filled with some pretty nasty stuff and used in some pretty nasty ways.

 

[HoughMade]

Seriously, as a professional pilot all the speculation about this just makes me shake my head...

As a lawyer on INGO, I have sustained permanent damage to my cervical spine since I joined.

 

[Classic]

Well I'm not a pilot, or a lawyer but I've been around for many commercial aircraft mishaps that happened over water and I can't recall any that left no trace at all. There is a lot of stuff on that aircraft the floats for a very long time, including an emergency beacon that supposedly floats and pings as well. If it crashed or blew up some of that material will turn up sooner or later. If not then somebody has a 777 stashed somewhere.

 

[ArmedProgrammer]

As a lawyrer on INGO, I have sustained permanent damage to my cervical spine since I joined.

As a lawyer, I wasn't aware that you had a spine, Counselor....

Just giving you grief, sir...

 

[indiucky]

As a lawyer, I wasn't aware that you had a spine, Counselor....

Just giving you grief, sir...

Lawyer joke for you boys...A buddy of mine is a lawyer and I saw him ding a Doctor with this one whilst they where "going at it" so to speak...

Lawyer-Do you know what Lawyers where doing while you Doctors where putting Leeches on George Washington ("Worshington" to those on the River)?

Doctor-I don't know...What?

Lawyer-Writing the Constitution of the United States of America.

It was a show stopper.......

As far as the missing plane I am going with my post 9/11 fall back theory....Islamic Terrorists...They and copius amounts of innocent dead go together like biscuits and gravy...

 

[indiucky]

The plane was hijacked, not by whom, but by when... (the movie MILLENIUM FOR THE WIN!!)

Awwwww c'mon....Even Kris Kristofferson couldn't save that turd!!!!!!

 

[HoughMade]

As a lawyer, I wasn't aware that you had a spine, Counselor....

Just giving you grief, sir...

Plenty of spine.....no heart.

 

[cyprant]

Sounds to me like a new episode for LOST.

Sounds to me like the first episode for LOST

 

[TaunTaun]

Couple theories.....

Lizard People!

Twilight Zone Theory 1: Man on the wing!

Twilight Zone Theory #2: Time Warp

Publicity Stunt Jack Bauer Edition:

 

[baldmax]

S.P.E.C.T.R.E.

 

[philo]

Does nobody else think we'll see that plane again. I suspect it'll be re-branded as American Airlines and flown in spoofing the transponder signal of an expected plane on a transpacific flight non-stop to somewhere like Chicago. It will be loaded with one of the "non-existent" Iranian nukes, or one of the unaccounted-for former soviet nukes, or some Iranian "less-refined" uranium, or some Syrian chemical weapons, etc. You name it there's lots who don't like us no matter how much borrowed money we throw at them.

The change in course and lack of debris showed the plane likely didn't crash. That means somebody took it. Why? They can't part it out - without maintenance logs the parts are worthless other than for scrap. Yes, lots of scrap, but not worth all the trouble for a bunch of aluminum scrap. Somebody wanted it so that they could re-use it, and they didn't care that there were 200+ passengers they would have to deal with.

That's my theory. Or, maybe I just read too much Tom Clancy. Although he certainly had that whole crashing a plane into a building thing right didn't he.

 

[avboiler11]

Bob Woodruff of ABC News posted this to Twitter today:

Also, late this afternoon EDT it was reported that a Chinese satellite found three large pieces of debris (at least 40'x40' in size) south of Vietnam, roughly along the airplane's flight plan course.

Who knows if the letter is a hoax or not, but I would think locating and verifying those large pieces of debris would happen any time now as they are 12 hours ahead of EDT in Kuala Lampur.

 

[Ruffnek]

Mobilizing the Seventh Fleet.

How the Navy's 7th Fleet Is Combing the Seas Near Malaysia for the Missing Airliner - Defense One

I have very little knowledge of all of this but some of the older guys here at work are speculating that the flight was diverted,flown under radar,and then landed to be fit with something such as a dirty bomb.Now remember that this is water cooler ****-chat but I could see it in these crazy times.

Why is INGO changing C H I T to ****?

 

[ATOMonkey]

The logistics needed to land a plane that big, fuel it and get it up in the air again with no one noticing is staggering.

 

[jkaetz]

The logistics needed to land a plane that big, fuel it and get it up in the air again with no one noticing is staggering.

Or else we put too much faith in the ability to track things like airplanes and resources to fly them.

Not knowing anything about commercial flight procedures but people seem to be stuck on the fact that the plane's transponder had to be switched off. Why is there a switch to turn the transponder off while the plane is in flight? Under what conditions would you actually want to fly a commercial airliner with the transponder switched off?

 

[DragonGunner]

Or else we put too much faith in the ability to track things like airplanes and resources to fly them.

Not knowing anything about commercial flight procedures but people seem to be stuck on the fact that the plane's transponder had to be switched off. Why is there a switch to turn the transponder off while the plane is in flight? Under what conditions would you actually want to fly a commercial airliner with the transponder switched off?

I asked that same thing.....I expect for them to start making it so transponders can't be turned off ever. Also the above post about some wreckage being found by satellite turned out to be 2 boats parked along side each other, so it appears now.